Ilia Beauty. My latest lipstick love.

If you read my “about” page, you’ll discover that I am not a total purist when it comes to being green. My preference is to use only all natural products, especially perfumes and body products, but you’ll find a few mainstream bottles and tubes scattered about my house nevertheless. Lipsticks in particular are a weakness because even though I have found a few naturals that I really like, they haven’t yet moved into the love category. Like how I love my Chanel Rouge Coco Shines- I’ve got more than a couple of those- or my Hourglass Femme Rouge in Fresco.

When I first read about Ilia Beauty over at Grace’s blog, LondonMakeupGirl, I had a feeling their natural lipsticks would be impressive. Ilia’s lipsticks are packed with sesame oil, jojoba oil, beeswax and pomegranate seed oil and I was eager to find out if they feel as good on the lips as they should given those nourishing ingredients. Now that I have worn these lipsticks for myself over several weeks, I can tell you they feel great and look amazing.

Sheer, balmy lipsticks with a subtle shine are my favorites, and Ilia’s fall right into that category. They are not a gloss/lipstick hybrid, but rather a lipstick that feels like a balm with a lovely slip that’s not waxy or sticky. These lipsticks not only feel nourishing, they are nourishing.

The colors I tried were Blossom Lady and Arabian Nights, both very wearable and flattering. Blossom Lady is the lighter pink color, which against my olive skin tone reads as a bubblegum pink. It’s almost nude in tone but not quite since it is sheer, allowing for your natural lip color to add depth. I usually go for pinks that are warmer and rosier, but Blossom Lady is just so pretty. It brightens up my face on those mornings when I haven’t had enough sleep.Arabian Nights is also very sheer, more so than you might think from just looking at it in the tube. But take a peek below and you’ll see that when swatched, it’s not densely pigmented. It’s buildable if you want a richer color, but if you prefer a sheer berry lip you’ll get that with just a couple swipes.As far as the ingredients, they are over 99% all natural and 85% organic. While perusing online reviews, I found this comment from the founder of Ilia at No More Dirty Looks regarding the use of synthetic color

The 3 synthetic colours listed are minimally used with percentages as low as 0.1% of the total formula. The majority of the shades are a combination of these with “natural dyes”, or iron oxides. Ironically, natural dyes or iron oxides dyes that come from the earth as minerals are full of metals…which our bodies are really good at absorbing and holding onto forever. It was a big decision to use a combination of the two in order to achieve more contemporary shades and provide options. There are many organic cosmetics brands that choose not to disclose the use of mild synthetic colours, yet most will have them if there is a brighter colour involved. Sharing this information was important to me, as to be completely transparent with nothing to hide. As an extra note, there is no Carmine in any of ILIA’s shades, which was a morale decision. The one colour that is completely natural with natural dye is the nude “Nobody’s Baby”. Hope this of help to you, and could write forever about what I have learned in regards to sourcing the ingredients for this one product, yet I do know where each ingredients comes from, right down to its source. If you have any other questions please let me know. Cheers! Sasha // Founder ILIA Beauty

I appreciate the transparency that Sasha provides just as much as I adore her lipsticks. I want to add that they last for hours and the recycled aluminum tubes are surprisingly elegant and close with that high end snap we makeup junkies love.Who’s that crazy kid?

Blossom Lady is helping me hang on to summer just a bit longer! I’m having
lunch by the boutique that carries Ilia tomorrow, I hope to give Bang Bang a try
as well. Thanks for your review, it led me to a new fave 🙂

ooh- I love that they are Carmine free too (in addition to being relatively natural )..I must try this at some point. My current favorite lippies are from a small indie company called silknaturals. Karen’s lipsticks and lipglosses are very reasonably priced, moisturizing and lovely (Though the packaging isn’t as nice ilia’s seems)

Thanks for this review, I’d never heard of that brand before reading this. I know that Lavera has a similar line of organic cosmetics that includes lipsticks and lip glosses that I really love, with a pretty good variety of bold and more subtle shades depending on your preference.